It’s fair to say I’ve had some pretty awful experiences with businesses over the years. Carphone Warehouse were outright liars and I caught them out faking customer reviews, BT have been a shower of shite forever, Direct Line allowed insurance fraud and cost me thousands and, as for YODEL, don’t even get me started on those imbeciles.

JD Sports, however, have contrived to take the crown for worst customer service. While some people at BT do attempt to help you, and when you eventually get high enough at Carphone Warehouse you get results, every single person at JD Sports was utterly useless and, as it turned out, simply made matters worse.

The story started when I placed an order for a Wales shirt on Sunday June 12th. The shirt was to have one of the players names printed on the back (I won’t even pretend you don’t know which one) and the number. I paid the offer price of a pound for next-day delivery, so was realistically expecting the shirt Tuesday – as you can’t really count Sundays.

However, later than evening I received an email saying my order had been shipped. Really? That was fast. Way to go JD Sports. I might actually get it on Monday. I was very impressed at this stage.

Just a quick update … your order JD88542857 has been despatched and will be with you shortly.

That email was sent at 22:54 on June 12th. The order was placed at 15:43 that afternoon.

Monday came and went with no delivery. No worries, I didn’t really expect it the next day. Tuesday arrived and… nothing. Oh, this is disappointing. As it was shipped Sunday, to arrive next day, surely it should have arrived Tuesday.

I feared the worst. I feared YODEL.

But no, JD Sports doesn’t use YODEL. They use Hermes. I know some people have had issues with Hermes but I’ve never had a problem with them. They can always find our address and always turn up when they’re expected to.

Wednesday came… and went. I tweeted at JD Sports and had the usual ‘send a DM’ response. I’d seen this with YODEL a million times before but I gave them the benefit of the doubt. To be fair, they responded on the Wednesday with the following from ‘Dean’:

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, It looks like you’ve ordered a personalised top, this means that next day delivery is not available as the item needs to be printed on and the personalisation applied.

This usually adds an additional 24-48 hours before the order is dispatched, as soon as the personalisation is completed, the order will be sent on a next day delivery service and should be with you the following day.

I’ve refunded your next day delivery charge and these funds should be back in your account within 3-5 days, apologies for any inconvenience this delay may cause.

OK, fair enough. There is a note on the website saying next-day isn’t available for shirts which are printed. They still took payment for next-day though, the crafty geezers. However, as the shirt was ‘shipped’ Sunday night (and this is starting to sound unlikely) even if you add on another 24-48hrs it should still have arrived Wednesday.

I asked them about why it was still late and why it said it was shipped when it clearly wasn’t. Dean replied with:

The dispatch email would be because it that group would have been dispatched but because it was personalised, the order would have been removed and taken to be printed.

As this didn’t actually answer my question about why it was still late, I tried again. Dean’s response:

It’s most likely been delayed given the large influx of orders we’ve received, please allow an additional 24 hours and this order should be dispatched.

Another 24hrs went by, and no shirt. I chased them again. It was now Thursday. This time Rosy replied.

Our records show that your order has been despatched and is on its way to you. Your tracking number is 1287573806120172 for you to track your order on Hermes website. Thanks – Rosy

I was getting annoyed now, and I replied to Rosy:

Odd that I’ve had no dispatch email, as promised, apart from the dispatch email Sunday night – which was clearly lying. When was it supposed to have been dispatched?

Now someone called Nick chimes in:

I have looked into this and can see that your order had personalisation on the item. Personalised items can not be allocated for next day delivery due to the time required for personalisation. I can see that my colleague has refunded your delivery charge. Your order should be with you shortly as I can see that it has been despatched. I apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused. Thanks Nick

By which point I’ve lost the plot:

You’re just saying the same thing now. Personalisation should be an extra 24-48hrs, it’s still late. Your colleague said give an additional 24hrs. It’s still late. Then I was given a tracking number. It doesn’t work. This is pathetic.

It’s now Friday, and another JD Sports customer service rep takes over:

I have emailed the warehouse for an update in regards to your order. Once I hear back I will get in touch and advise further. Thanks Pete

I received nothing all day so chased them, before yet another new customer service rep takes over:

That was the last message I received from them via Twitter, even after I chased them asking for clarification of what the holy hell this following email was about, which I received on the Saturday, 7 days after the initial order… wait for it…

In regards to your order 88542857, I am sorry to inform you that we were unable to print the selected name and number on your football shirt due to lack of customisation letters.

Could you please confirm whether you would like to the keep the item without the personalisation and receive a refund of £12 or to be fully refunded?

Please accept our apologies for the inconvenience caused.

What the fuck? It hasn’t been shipped? I’ve just been told repeatedly by a veritable hoard of JD Sports idiots that it has been shipped. They given me tracking numbers, and apologies, and bull shit… and they were what… lying?

Just what is going on with JD Sports? Do they have any idea what has happened with the order? Am I just asking the wrong people?

Also, if they haven’t actually printed the name and number on the shirt what have they been doing for the last week?

I replied to the email immediately with:

So why have I been lied to via Twitter, repeatedly, and assured it has been shipped?

Then, before any email response was received, I had a ‘How did we do Darren‘ email from them asking for feedback on how well they had handled my query.

Surely they’re taking the piss now?

They haven’t handled my query at all. It’s been a week, I’ve been told contradictory information and I still do not have what I ordered.

Otherwise yeah, spot on lads. You’ll get my feedback alright, but it won’t be via a survey you can ignore. It will be via a blog, a blog you can’t do a damn thing about. Believe me, many have tried.

It’s not over yet, it gets better – or worse, depending on your viewpoint.

I was called at 12:05 on Monday June 20th by Abdul from JD Sports, from their Manchester office on 0161 767 1499. I can only really describe Abdul as disinterested and rude.

The conversation went around in circles quite a bit as I wanted to know why I had been lied to by their customer service team.

Abdul insisted they didn’t lie, they just didn’t check. He said ‘they didn’t do their job properly’. That’s nice of him to admit. I could have told him that.

“If you’d taken their names, we could have taken it further” he mumbled. To which I told him I had their names as I had a full transcript of the DMs on Twitter. Each one is signed off with a name. I’ve pasted their names above so you can see who said what.

I could sense Abdul couldn’t really care less and wasn’t going to help so I asked if he had a contact for the complaints department. “No, I do not” he mumbled. Well that’s nice isn’t it?

I asked if there was a complaint’s procedure. Yes, he said. The managers can call you back. He then asked for my details. What, like my phone number? The one we’re speaking on now? The one you just used to call me? What other details could you possibly need, my shoe size?

Abdul then offered me a £10 voucher for JD Sports, which I declined as I had no intention of ever using them again.

As it was evident Abdul wasn’t going to be of any help whatsoever, I left the call with him on the understanding the complaints manager would call me back. That was eight days ago. I have not received a call back.

Did I expect one? No, JD Sports clearly has some major customer service issues. The issues being they’re bloody useless and have absolutely no idea what is going on. Rather than help customers with orders they make shit up and lie to stall for time. They actually make things worse.

Meanwhile, however, here is the shirt I ordered without the name and number printed on it.

The more eagle-eyed among you will notice the word ‘Bale’ and the number ’11’ on the shirt. But how, you may ask. Seems JD Sport is so utterly incompetent that their customer service department has made a major issue out of something which didn’t even happen in the first place. Despite the tweets and emails saying it was shipped/not shipped, and it had gone to print/not gone to print, the shirt arrived as ordered – albeit over a week later.

If JD Sport only gave a shit and sorted out its dire customer service it might actually be OK. As it is however I’m never using them again.

Incidentally they did refund me the £12 for the printing. Yes, they’re that useless.

Darren Jamieson, aka MrDaz, is the Technical Director and co-founder of Engage Web and has been working online in a career spanning two decades. His first website was built in 1998 and is still live today.

I just wish I’d seen your post before ordering my daughters Christmas present from this shower of shite. The annoying thing is I’ve seen the items in store several times since but ordered online as my daughter was with me and has eagle eyes. My delivery hasn’t arrived, had no communication at all since the order was accepted (however the money has gone from my account), and the phone line just disconnects you long before you get to talk to a human.

It’s obviously not going to be here for Christmas, despite the ‘order now for Christmas delivery’ promise.

This company is ridiculous! I ordered a pair on nike air max on sale for £30 reduced from £90 had a email to confirm that my order has been accepted and payment had been taken, so the next day i get a email to say they were out if stock and my order had been cancelled, that in itself isnt good enough why let somebody purchase an item of there are none left? So anyway i looked at the site to see what else they had only to find that the particular trainers i had ordered were in fact in stock within an hour of receiving and email to say they werent but they were full price again! Absolutely disgusted is an understatement! And i can not get threw to anybody from customer service to resolve this issue

Wow, wish I read all thIs before I placed my next day premium delivery. Ordered some Nike clothes for my daughter and cousin for a party. We were all so excited but I’m guessing the courier just didn’t wake up early so didn’t get the parcel to DPD. The usual delivery is on its way, then sorry delivery has been delayed. I sent a message on Facebook and tweeted and was told the items are on their way. Finally got through to customer service after being cut off 3 times and JDSPORTS, you seriously need to train your staff. I was told next day is not guaranteed and will arrive On Sunday. You think I was just sitting down, and suddenly decided ooooo I’m going to order £200 worth of stuff to be delivered next day from JD because I’m bored. Will never order from you again and guaranteed will make sure anyone who I see ordering from you will get a warning

I ordered next day delivery 3 personalised shirts. Needed these as was having it signed.

Didn’t arrive for 4 days, then when they did, only 2 were personalised. Couldn’t get them signed as were late. Now they don’t seem to be offering a refund for over paid shirts and only offering 10% discount.

As with others I wish I had seen this too. I am in the middle of a similar experience. I ordered a shirt (for another international team) and paid the full amount for next day delivery. 6 days later no sign. No response to emails and phone for customer service says they are experiencing high volumes of calls (not surprising) and disconnects! So pissed with these guys. Would never order again and highly recommend others don’t either.

I’ve had a very similar experience. My delivery never arrived (despite a text from Royal Mail saying it had), so I emailed to complain and they got back to me quite quickly (3 days) which I was pleased about saying I should fill out the attached declaration form and they would then look to investigate or to refund if they aren’t able to track the order down, but they hadn’t attached the declaration form!
That was nearly 3 weeks ago, I’ve sent 3 chase up emails with no response at all. It’s absolutely ridiculous! I’m sure it will drag on for much longer and will be sure to be a while before I get my £40 back. I don’t want my trainers from them anymore. – they’re a joke!

It’s so weird! I’ve ordered exactly the same shirt and been given (when they actually reply, which is rare) the same excuses. I’ve never had the misfortune to deal with such appalling ‘customer care’ They are staggeringly inept.
I don’t have my shirt (8 days so far) and apparently they’re out of letters and numbers and don’t know when they’ll have any!?!? An excuse they gave you in June and it’s now end of July. I don’t believe them. They just use it to fob you off

aww….i need to share my bad experience with JD too. paid for 2 pairs of adidas NMD on 27 July 2017, to be delivered to Singapore. Until now there is no sign of the parcel. customer service team sucks. no reply despite i send multiple emails, Twitter, and leave comments on Instagram. and now I dispute the charges via PayPal…i hope someone can help. seriously.

I actually ordered personalised Welsh kit on 11 July for birthday in August so you’d think that the kit would arrive in plenty of time, WRONG!!!! I have actually contacted JD sports well over ten times since July and it is now September. I have heard every excuse possible,The letters weren’t in stock, parcel lost in transit, print department hasn’t returned it to warehouse etc etc…. At the end of July I requested the kit be sent without any personalisation but still getting fobbed off with excuse after excuse. I’ve asked for a refund no less than 6 times over the last 4 weeks but yet again still waiting for a response worth reading. I would advise anyone thinking of ordering from this company not to do so, I can honestly say I will never purchase anything from them online ever again.

This is happening with us over a pair of trainers. Paid for next day delivery via Hermes, claimed they tried to deliver, they absolutely didn’t since I was at home the whole time and now the package is simply missing for over a week. Their customer service phone number simply doesn’t work. Sends you through a call catcher and then hangs up on you. Emailing via their form doesn’t work. Goes into a black hole – no response. Now we’re out the cost of the shoes, the cost of the shipping, we have no shoes and no way to contact JD Sports to get our *#&@ing money back.